Spreadsheet programs, such as Microsoft Excel, Sun StarOffice Calc, Microsoft Works Spreadsheet and Apple Numbers, are computer applications that simulate paper worksheets by displaying multiple cells in rows and columns that contain text or numeric values. Many of these cells include formulas based on information in those cells and/or a combination of other cells within that spreadsheet or in a separate spreadsheet within a larger workbook document that determine what is presented in the contents of those particular cells. A change to a single cell can affect data presentation through an entire spreadsheet.
Database tables, such as those used in Microsoft Access, SQL Server, IBM DB, Oracle, Adobe ColdFusion and other databases, similarly present multiple cells in rows and columns that contain text or numeric values. Information included within these cells may contain formulas based on information in those and/or other combinations of cells within that database table or in a separate, linked database table that determine the presentation of content in the individual cells. Just as changes made to a single cell in a spreadsheet may affect global spreadsheet data, changes made to individual database table cells may affect the presentation of data throughout the table and multiple linked tables, as they often occur in database or spreadsheet programs.
The use of spreadsheets and database tables, in their earliest incarnations in the 1980s and early 1990s, were simple tools used at an individual level to manage the presentation and comprehension of data and information. However, with increases in technology and collaborative capacity and the complexity of data management, the nature of the data processing has changed. Currently, spreadsheet and database table data are accessed by multiple users that create series of revisions and multiple documents. In addition, users manage complex data relationships within individual spreadsheets or database tables or across linked spreadsheets or database tables.